City's New Deal: Let Us Dump All the Trash at McCommas, and We'll Create "Stimulus Fund"

Wednesday's council briefing is shaping up to be action-packed, in the words of Ronnie Dawson: It'll have redistricting, a look-see at Dallas Fire-Rescue's budget (which includes that proposal to move and mothball engines) and ... dunh dunh dunh ... flow control, otherwise known as Marys Suhm and Nix's controversial proposal...

By Robert Wilonsky

September 2, 2011

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Wednesday's council briefing is shaping up to be action-packed, in the words of Ronnie Dawson: It'll have redistricting, a look-see at Dallas Fire-Rescue's budget (which includes that proposal to move and mothball engines) and ... dunh dunh dunh ... flow control, otherwise known as Marys Suhm and Nix's controversial proposal to force solid-waste haulers to dump their loads at McCommas Bluff Landfill or the Bachman Transfer Station.

~~By day's end the city will post~~Here is the PowerPoint that'll be presented to council; sounds like a nice Saturday-morning read. After all, It'll be filled with pictures of resource recovery centers in Germany and California; it'll recap a series of meetings held with an alphabet soup's worth of organizations since June (including one only yesterday with the NAACP, TCEQ, EPA and city staff); and it'll propose the creation of a "city fund dedicated to development projects that bring positive economic impact to communities near the landfill." The formal name: South East Oak Cliff (SEOC) Economic Stimulus Fund. Where's Schutze? He'll love that.

The briefing will also ask the council to give the proposal -- which, Suhm and Nix insist, will make the city millions off tipping fees and the conversion of trash into sellable methane -- the thumbs up by no later than September 28, in the hopes of implementing the ordinance by January. To which the solid-waste haulers will once again say: No, no, no.

How do I know? On the other side is a letter Tom Brown, the Texas Chapter Chair of the National Solid Wastes Management Association, sent to Mayor Mike Rawlings earlier this week. In it, Brown again makes his case that sending all the city's trash to the landfill near Paul Quinn College will have a "negative financial impact on businesses throughout Dallas including businesses in Southern Dallas." Jump for it, but watch where you step.

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